Celebrating Handmade Books

We spent the afternoon at the annual book fair of Austin Book Workers (you bet I’ll be joining that group!). We saw some lovely books and even some demos on paper marbling. My favorite was the suminagashi which I’ve never seen before.

Here’s a pic of the demo. After the artist has added the ink in the water, rice paper is laid on the water surface to “pick up” the ink. The paper is then set to dry and can be used for calligraphy or any other paper arts. I wish I had a picture of some of the finished results but I was too busy watching this that I forgot to take those pics. This really looks like a lot of fun so maybe one day I’ll have to try it out.

Finally, I took a few pictures of my springback book. Remember this book? Well here’s how it turned out.

It has leather covers, chiyogami paper on the front and must weigh at least a pound. The covers are thick and it has approximately 900 pages. All blank and waiting for my inspired writings. Ha,ha…

Here’s another picture of the inside so you can see a bit more.

Eventually I need to take better pictures of this one to add it to my bookart page. I’m just so excited it’s finished because what with my move, vacation, etc. I almost thought I’d never see the complete version!

Melody – I may be doing that soon! I’ll keep you posted 🙂
bethany canfield – Thank you! I love sharing pics… I just get lazy about taking them. ha,ha.
tanabata – I’ve done paper marbling in the past and it is a lot of fun but I’d never seen this which I believe is how originally paper marbling started. It’s so pretty and looks so easy to do but I’m sure it’s not!
Literary Feline – Aw, thank you 🙂
sassymonkey – you should give a try. Get a good book (I can recommend some if you want) or see if there are any classes around you. Start off with a simple binding and see if you really like it!
jenclair – I definitely think I’m in the right place. Austin is a great place for crafters and artists so I’m pretty excited!
Heather – Thank you! Give a try some day!
Christine – Well, you know, you are by the Center for Book Arts! I’m jealous of that 🙂
Isabel – Don’t worry, no one in their right mind would pay what I’d ask for this one. It took me so long to make it that I’d ask a fortune – ha,ha…
Rob – Thank you!
aka Nik – I think this will one remain blank for quite a while. I just can’t think of what to put in it.
Andi – Many thanks girl 🙂
Jordan – And, many thanks to you too! 🙂

Chris@bookarama – Thank you!
Matt – Well, it is pretty hefty – it could be a weapon almost 🙂
Stefanie – Thank you – I was pretty happy with it. Can’t wait to be part of the Austin Book Workers and learn more!

Nicole – Thank you!
Shadan – Thanks girl. You’ll have to come visit me in Austin to take a look at it 🙂
Danielle – I’m so excited about finding the group. I was so bummed out about leaving my class in Dallas so this is at least makes up for that somewhat. I’m still going up to Dallas every few weeks to take my class but I’ll probably only do that through the end of Summer. I just have so much more to learn!
Carl V. – Those endpapers are beautiful aren’t they? I had had them for such a long time too that I’m so happy I could finally use them. It was hard to work with the paper though as it was super thin and I had to back it up before using it.
Matt – this is funny, but I’ve actually only opened the book a couple of times! I need to flatten out all the pages though so I guess I better get acquainted with it 🙂